Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:02 pm
The Trump “movement” sounds more like fascism every day. Attacks on freedom of the press must now meet voters who, because they don’t like the “leader,” shouldn’t be able to vote. Former United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and Iran Contra figure, Oliver North – the guy who sold guns to Iran, and as a National Security Council staff member then took the metaphorical bullet for Reagan – is vexed that anyone would have the temerity to oppose Donald Trump.
Appearing on Fox News’ Hannity Monday, Oliver North said in reaction to Trump’s ISIS speech,
“If you’re a critic of what this man just proposed then you don’t belong in the voting process.”
That wasn’t the only ridiculous thing North said. Take a listen courtesy of Media Matters for America:
SEAN HANNITY (HOST): There are some Republicans that are openly sabotaging Donald Trump. And I say if Hillary were to win, I’m blaming them. And that means people at National Review, and The Weekly Standard, and a lot of congressmen and senators and former presidential candidates … What do you say to them in the 30 seconds we have left?
OLIVER NORTH: You know what? If you’re a critic of what this man just proposed then you don’t belong in the voting process. Critics are pointing to his quote, “evolving positions.” I heard that just an hour before I came on air with you. Do you know what we used to call evolving positions? We used to call that wisdom. I was very impressed with that stand that he took today.
It is a short step from Trump’s demand in his ISIS speech for “an ideological screening test” to basing the right to vote on holding the right ideological position. Trump in the speech North loves more than the Democratic process, said “The time is overdue to develop a new screening test for the threats we face today,” and now Oliver North is saying, to my ears at least, that we need the same test for voters. It’s not far-fetched: already you have to have the right skin color to vote.
It is amusing, on the other hand, that Hannity attacks The Weekly Standard, which, incomprehensibly, followed Trump’s equally incomprehensible speech with the headline, “Trump Effectively Hits Obama and Clinton in National Security Policy Speech,” arguing that “the speech marked a sorely needed improvement in Trump’s credibility.”
Yes, it’s getting pretty deep over in Trumpland. And at the Weekly Standard. And yes, at Fox News, where Hannity’s every breath reeks of the stuff.
And evolving positions: “We used to call that wisdom”? Really? When did you call it wisdom? When Barack Obama’s positions on anything (remember marriage equality) evolved, you called it “flip-flopping.” And to be fair, Mitt Romney was lambasted as a flip-flopper in 2012 even by conservatives, because let’s face it, you can’t say saying different things on different days is “evolving.”
Yet now that it is Donald Trump of all people, it’s wisdom? Donald Trump and “wisdom” don’t belong in the same sentence. And you can’t even call it “evolving” when it’s just a change of lies. His lies evolve maybe, but not his actual positions. One day he says “X” and the next he says “I never said X.” That’s not evolving. That’s not how it works.
You have to wonder sometimes if the Trump apologists aren’t crazier than Trump himself. Well, you have to give North credit for holding his ground, even if it is a steaming pile.
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